SolarPower Europe welcomes UK's call for MIP suspension

SolarPower Europe has described the UK governments public stand against the solar Minimum Import Price (MIP) as particularly welcome. The comment comes after Andrea Leadsom, the UKs Minister of State at Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) told the House of Commons today that it would be it would be fairer and simpler to remove the MIP while the current expiry review is under way.

Share

Despite cutting public support for solar, the UK government has taken a public position in opposition to the temporary extension of the MIP undertaking currently inflating the price of solar module imports into Europe from Chinese manufacturers.

SolarPower Europe, the former European Photovoltaic Industry Association, says that the UK cannot veto the MIP. However it supports the UK’s argument that the MIP should not remain place during the expiry review process.

In principle Leadsom makes a good point, SolarPower Europes James Watson told pv magazine. Why couldnt the investigation take place during the last year of the scheduled duties, in 2015, rather than de facto extending the duties for another year while the [European] Commission determines whether they are needed.

Leadsom made the comments this morning during an Oral Answers to Questions session of Parliament fronted by herself and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd.

The MIP is an unwelcome drain on the UK solar industry, said Leadsom, in answer to a question from a fellow Conservative Party MP. The Secretary of State made that point in her letter to the Trade Commissioner in November. Unfortunately, however, the decision to launch an expiry review is one for the Commission, not for member states.

SolarPower Europes James Watson notes that while the UK cannot take unilateral action against the MIP, that if the ECs expiry review finds that the Undertaking should not continue, that it will have been extended throughout 2016, for no real reason.

Instead of a presumption for protectionism there should be a presumption for free and fair trade, said Watson. Hopefully other governments will come forward and express their views in a similar way, the more governments that act and let the Commission know they are opposed to the trade measures, the more likely they are to be persuaded to drop them.

Watson notes that the Dutch government has already taken a position against the MIP, and that is aware of at least five other EU members that formally oppose the MIP.

Related

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Keep up to date

pv magazine Global offers daily updates of the latest photovoltaics news. We also offer comprehensive global coverage of the most important solar markets worldwide. Select one or more editions for targeted, up to date information delivered straight to your inbox.

Email*

Select Edition(s)*

Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select multiple editions.

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

Keep up to date

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.